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The tribal effect!

Another post from Patrice Ayme

Patrice, not his real name, lives in France. He is a thinker but also a communicator. Thank goodness! For many of Patrice’s blog posts are superb. Like this one ….

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No Tribe, No Vibe… Thrive With The Herd, Think Like The Herd: Not The Easiest Way To Advance Wisdom

By Patrice Ayme, June 15th, 2024.

Tribal effects are dominant, in all fields of thinking, even in the hardest sciences, logic, math, theoretical physics. It took more than three centuries for Buridan’s concept of momentum to finally rule… Among the top thinkers.

So a particular analysis is only relative to what a particular tribe will tolerate… And this is true all over, especially in so-called analytic philosophy. I recently found a (very!) unexpected effect in Relativity (by using Relativity in an unusual way). Instead of rejoicing and inquiring, the main Relativity site immediately blocked and canceled me. No debate. Never mind that I obviously knew Relativity better than most on that site. I was removed because I had not followed “the rules” … which apparently are that all what is officially known in Relativity as an Einstein cult is all there is to know.

Once I gave a physics seminar at Stanford, on Black Holes, and I prepared it with what I hoped was profound thought. Grave error. I was excoriated for showing the obvious: no good predictions without a better understanding of Quantum Mechanics. 20 years later, everybody was doing that, including the (world top) luminaries in attendance 20 years earlier. 

The effect seems ubiquitous. The most creative thinkers have to be iconoclasts, and iconoclast thinkers are hated by the tribe for breaking their icons… Until great priests of the tribe (or, more craftily, their students) steal said ideas and make them their own… The best example of this is Relativity, 99% developed by Poincaré and his associates, stolen by Einstein. Poincaré, although the world’s top mathematician, and discoverer of E = mcc, and the rest of Relativity had one problem: he belonged not just to the French tribe, but was part of a family keen to resist further German invasion… His cousin was Raymond Poincaré, the President of the French Republic, fiercely opposed to German domination. .  

So why do people do what they do? Generally to get power, be it just the power of clothing, a roof, food and consideration. And what provides all this? A tribe.

No tribe, no vibe…

So then what? Any time an idea surfaces, the first question of the most profound, hence most independent thinker, should be the idea’s tribal localization. 

If an idea has no tribal origin, it has a much better chance to be new. Conversely, ideas which are like flags should often best be… flagged down…  But some will object, where is wisdom in all this? Wisdom? What is it? The etymological root of the concept (etymology means logic of the truth…) of wisdom is to see, hence to know… The tribe has seen all there was to see, with its thousands of eyes. To see more, to see what was not seen yet… One has to go, where one didn’t go yet, or to be, what nobody was yet… or taste what had not been tasted yet (the origin of sap, hence sapiens, and sage, sagesse…)

Tribes may have the vibes, and the wiles, but also dumb down beautiful minds.

Patrice Ayme

We got to own this world, one idea at a time. And all of these ideas were born once, in one human mind, and no more than that. Thriving tribes may have the vibes and the wiles, but they never found the smarts.

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Of course I left a comment on Patrice’s blog. This is what I said,

It is 0430 in Oregon and I have just read your essay out to Jeannie. That was after reading it quietly myself.

It is profound. And it leads me on to thinking about the future, as in the next ten years. For recently a weather scientist (name forgotten) said that the peoples of Planet Earth have just ten years to reduce our emissions of, primarily, CO2 or we go past a global tipping point.

Just ten years! Not much time for a global tribe to pickup the vibe of this scientist and run with it. We require a global democracy so we can eschew our governments and get to work, now!

A Christmas break

Just a note to say that Learning from Dogs is taking a short break from blogging.

We will be back next year!

On Tuesday, 2nd January, 2024

We wish you a pleasant holiday and a peaceful break.

Photo by S&B Vonlanthen on Unsplash

Picture Parade Five Hundred and Three

Staying with the stray dogs courtesy of Unsplash.

Photo by Lauren Kay on Unsplash

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Photo by Anthony Young on Unsplash

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Photo by Transly Translation Agency on Unsplash

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Photo by Daniele Franchi on Unsplash

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Photo by Margarita Kosior on Unsplash

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Photo by Daniele Franchi on Unsplash

These poor dogs. One only hopes that they will be adopted sooner rather than later, but I doubt it!

A power failure

We lost power for all the afternoon yesterday.

That plus my daughter and family arriving this weekend means that there is no post for today, and I am not sure when I will be next online.

In the interim you all stay safe and happy!

Another apology

Too much going on just now!

Jean is still in Asante but hoping to go to rehab in Grants Pass as soon as a bed becomes available.

I, of course, am visiting Jean as often as I can; usually twice a day.

I am also getting the house in shape plus numerous other things.

So my free time to write posts is going to be limited for some time; my son arrives on the 25th June.

So for the next few weeks posts will be on an irregular basis and I am sure you understand.

Take care everyone!

UPDATE

When I went yesterday evening to Asante I was told that Jean will be going to Regency Care in Grants Pass today! 😊

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Eighty-Eight

Yet more dogs from Unsplash.

My son is unable to provide his fabulous photographs of birds every other week. More from him on an ‘as and when‘ basis.

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There we go! More photographs in a week’s time.

An apology!

Sorry about there being no post today.

We had a dental appointment yesterday that went on much later than was anticipated. We didn’t arrive home until 4pm.

So I am very sorry.

Picture Parade Four Hundred and Seventy-Two

A British sheep dog at work.

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These are photos that were shown on Ugly Hedgehog by Alan (BigAl). Plus the last two were additional from Alan. Alan kindly gave me permission to share them with you all today.